WORTH WATCHING

Edgar Wright's First Feature 'A Fistful of Fingers' Available Online Now

There's still just under a few weeks until US audiences will taste the end of the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy from director Edgar Wright. This writer was lucky enough to catch the film early at Comic-Con last month (read my glowing review here), and coming fresh off a double feature of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz at The Music Box Theatre in Chicago, I can't wait to see it again. But in the meantime, why not journey to the beginning of Wright's career around 1995 and watch his first feature film, A Fistful of Fingers, which parodies Sergio Leone's A Fisftul of Dollars trilogy, the iconic western series starring Clint Eastwood.

Here's Edgar Wright's first feature film, A Fistful of Fingers, in full (via The Playlist):

The film follows Graham Low (the living statue in Hot Fuzz) in the lead role as “No-Name”, a gunslinger who rides into Somerset aka Deadwood Town in search of his rival The Squint (Oli van der Vijver). After the death of his loyal horse Easy, No-Name swears revenge and sets off to settle the score once and for all. Unlike the work which has made Wright a praised filmmaker, A Fistful of Fingers is a straight-up parody along the lines of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Airplane! or The Naked Gun. While there's some wit here, this is also Wright's early work, so some of the jokes are just plain terrible. However, the tongue-in-cheek nature of the film at least lends weight to fact that maybe they were aware this wasn't so great.

Though it's clearly a student film, there are some great elements that make it feel like it was probably a cut above the rest. An animated credits sequence was crafted by his brother Oscar Wright, and the score feels like the perfect imitation of Ennio Morricone. Thankfully, the powers that be saw something special in Wright, and this film landed him some TV gigs that eventually led to his creation of the cult classic series "Spaced" and the film career he has today. And if you're interested in just how Wright got to where he is now, a discussion with the director from the London Screenwriters Festival last year is now online:

The hour-long talk features Wright talking about his above feature film parody, along with his writing process, some insights into the film industry as a business, and much more. Wright is always willing to give outsiders a very honest, open and deep look into his process, not to mention the difficulties of working in Hollywood, and this discussion is perfect for his fans, hardcore cinephiles, and anyone with more than just a passing interest in fillmmaking. Stay tuned for more from Wright since he's directing Ant-Man for Marvel.